The thing is, the map apology letter wasn't "something out of a new playbook". When Apple dropped the price of the original iPhone $200 two months after it went

The thing is, the map apology letter wasn't "something out of a new playbook". When Apple dropped the price of the original iPhone $200 two months after it went on sale, people were pissed. Steve wrote a public letter of apology (http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter). It was in many ways a similar situation: Apple did something that hurt early adopters, and the CEO offered an explanation as well as a heartfelt apology to the effect that everyone expects better from Apple. The closing paragraphs are even remarkably similar: > We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple. vs > Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.